The Testimony of Scripture.

As the deer pants for water – so my soul pants for you oh lord. I sit at the Master’s feet and wait on what He wants to give me. I am reminded that He is always a giving God, eager to share His grace and love.

” Yes, from the beginning of time, as I decided to create – I had this desire to give, to make out of nothing, to turn around that which may be evil or negative. To turn that so that My people may experience My immeasurable generosity. Even as I have allowed evil and pain into the world it has been allowed benevolently so that you can truly appreciate My love, mercy, grace and generosity. Even that longing you feel for Me and My grace and love has been placed there so that you will turn away from your own desires and plans to gaze upon Me and to follow Me, so that I can gather you up into My arms along with all those others who have responded to My love.“

We come now to John 5:31. Up to now we have been introduced to Jesus by John, the Baptist and by the miracles He performed. Jesus now starts putting the miracles into perspective. Remember that the theme of John’s gospel is described in John 20:30,31. The miracles have been described so that the reader may believe and in believing have eternal life. However, how do they know who this is that they are seeing doing miracles? So there needs to be an explanation or commentary (testimony) which will explain who the miracles are pointing to.

Jesus is addressing the Jews, who were completely hostile towards Him. He starts by saying that His testimony, at this stage cannot just be from Himself, so where must it come from? Firstly, there has been John the Baptist. However as much as that shone a light forward which they had enjoyed, it did not, on its own carry enough weight to be a final proof of who He is.

So, vs 36 Jesus turns to the miracles (note: He calls them signs as they were done to point to Him), as proof that “The Father” was behind them, thus revealing His deity. He turns then to the very testimony of the Father Himself. Where should they find this testimony? He is bringing them to the point of this whole section. That testimony is in the very scriptures which the Jews pride themselves on being such experts.

What is the problem? He comes back to that at the end of the piece in v 45. They base their whole lives on the law of Moses. Yet in doing this they are simply following the law, a list of rules. They don’t see or understand that this very law points beyond itself to the person of Jesus, the expected Messiah. The problem is one of faith, belief. cf v 40. It is not just that they don’t believe, according to Jesus they “refuse to believe”.

What is the proof of this? The proof is in their fruit (vs 41-44). They show no real love for God because they are more interested in receiving praise for themselves. Their focus is entirely on themselves and are not interested in finding how they can praise God and receive praise from Him.

Ultimately the very “signs” He was doing were meaningless unless they were put into the context of scripture, explaining who He was/is. Basically, the problem started with their self-centered attitude. They were more interested in themselves and being praised for their knowledge than submitting to the scriptures and letting God reveal Himself in them.

Friends, our denomination’s motto is: “Thy word above all things”. It is a very good motto, however we need to remember that knowing and reading God’s word, the scriptures are not, in themselves enough to live our Christian lives. The scriptures are always a conduit, a “way” of finding and meeting the Lord Himself. We “listen to Jesus” in and through the scriptures and look at how they point to Him and then we derive from that what He is saying to us, so that our lives may be changed by understanding them and by the application and power of the Holy Spirit.

If we read them in any other way, we just become legalists, like those Jews, trying to please God by obeying the “rules”. It is very easy even for us, as Christians who love the Lord to fall back into reading the Word as an end in itself, without seeing them as part of our dynamic relationship with Jesus. What a privilege that is, we should never pass that up for second best.

A thought-provoking reminder. See you all again next week.